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City (Civ6)
A city is the basic unit of a civilization. It houses its people, it advances its science, culture, faith and other stats, it expands its territory, and finally - it produces everything else the civilization has. Cities are also central to your technological and cultural development, and serve as bastions for your armies. You cannot win without powerful, well-situated cities. Cities in Civilization VI are far different than in previous games. They are now composed of a City Center - the original tile where the city was founded - and additional neighborhoods called "districts," which are found in nearby tiles. A single city can thus sprawl over a considerable expanse of land, and even water! City Population Cities contain the empire's population, represented by the entities known as Citizens. Cities normally begin with a population of 1 and grow based on available housing and food output. The size of the city determines the total workforce that can work the land surrounding the city. Additional districts may only be built once the population reaches a certain threshold. Food As in previous games, the main population growth factor is Food. However, there are now additional factors determining how fast your city grows. If a city has a food surplus, its population will gradually increase, whereas a food deficit will cause its population to gradually decrease. That's why it's always important to consider the food resources in nearby terrain when founding a new city - these will allow it to grow fast and become more useful to your empire. Housing City growth is also controlled by Housing, which represents the physical infrastructure for population and puts an upper limit on how many Citizens is the city really able to support. Initially the amount of Housing available is strongly dependent on fresh water access - that's why the Water layer pops out every time a Settler unit is selected. When the city center is built on a tile with Fresh Water access, it receives a very high initial Housing value, and is able to support fast populational growth. A medium bonus to Housing is also received if the city is built on the coast; in any other case there is no initial Housing Bonus. When the city grows, however, its Housing becomes mostly dependent on the existence of tile improvements, buildings and districts (that is, facilities inside the city which have no relation to nearby terrain). Housing acts by putting an additional constraint on Population growth beyond food supply. A city which is close to, or at the Housing limit, will grow at -50% penalty; when it exceeds its Housing limit the growth slows by 75%, even if it has plenty of food. "Many buildings grant Housing. After researching , every city is able to build a , which adds 2 Housing, and later they can build , which also adds 2 Housing. Buildings in other districts sometimes add Housing, such as the in the district, the in the , and the in the . The building in your capital city also adds 1 Housing." "Each , , , or supports a small amount of Population - 1 Housing for every 2 such improvements. Supporting rural Population in this fashion will allow for slightly larger Populations prior to the , when the district becomes available." -Civilopedia Population Growth To summarize: the final growth factor of a city's population depends not only on food (as in previous games), but also on Housing and available Amenities. You can always find a detailed description of all factors affecting population growth in the first City Details screen. Citizens as a workforce As in previous games, the Citizens of a city also act as the basic workforce of your Empire. They may occupy the tiles around their city, working them and thus granting the city the yields these tiles currently have. If a tile isn't worked by a Citizen, its yield goes to waste, no matter how high it is. Note that District tiles (those tiles around your cities occupied by Districts) cannot be worked initially. After you construct certain buildings in the Districts, however, Citizen slots appear there, just as on regular tiles. The difference is that a single District may have more than one slot! Citizens occupying District tiles are considered 'Specialists' and contribute specialized yields, based on the District type. For example, Citizens working in a Holy Site District contribute Faith, while those working in a Theater Square District contribute Culture. Unlike Civilization V, Specialists do not contribute Great Person Points - these are now reserved for the Districts themselves. Using Citizens the right way, by working the right tiles in different stages of the game, might be the most important micro-managing decision you make. You should think well what does your city and your Empire need right now, and assign Citizens accordingly. Alternatively, you may use the checkpoints next to production yields in the city info tab to focus or un-focus production on certain types of yields - then the game will automatically reassign Citizens so as to maximize (or minimize) the respective stat for this city. City production In Civilization VI cities still have a single production queue (that is, they can only do one thing at a time). However, the production is not cocentrated in the City Center anymore - many of its Districts now act as specialized production centers! For example, after you build an Encampment District,all land military units produced in that city will start appearing there, and not in the City Center. The same is valid for the Harbor and Aerodrome districts, respectively for Sea and Air units. But what's more, in many cases production of certain units in a city becomes possible only if the city has a certain district! This is the case for Air units, which require an Aerodrome district, and for Religious units, which may only be purchased in a Holy Site district. Certain special Civilian units will also appear in Districts, for example the Archaeologist only appears in a Theater Square district with an Archaeological Museum. And of course, as mentioned elsewhere, most Buildings can only be constructed in certain Districts; with some also requiring other buildings, for example the University requires a Library. Purchasing units with Gold or Faith also obeys the same restrictions. Finally, Civilization VI introduces a number of regular Projects, such as Holy Site Prayers, which are related to the Specialty Districts, and may only be undertaken if the city has them. These Projects run for a set number of turns, and when finished produce a large amount of some stats (and usually some specific Great Person points). Territorial expansion As in previous games, every city pushes your empire's territorial boundaries. At foundation, it anexes all tiles surrounding the City Center (which are still free). Further expansion is again controlled by the amount of Culture the city produces; however the exact expansion details are not known at this time. Tiles may also be purchased with Gold. This is now done straight from the city options on the main screen. You may purchase any tile which is found right next to the current boundaries of the city; the farther the tile is from a City Center, the more expensive it is. Unlike Civilization V, Resources don't seem to affect the price of tiles. Again, you may only purchase tiles up to three away from any City Center - further tiles may only be annexed via normal Cultural expansion. City Defenses Being a civilization's main manifestation, a city is always a target for military action. That's why it's also important to consider how a city can defend itself from enemies. In Civilization VI early cities are quite weak, because they lack any defensive structures. Unlike in previous games, without defensive structures a city cannot use a Ranged Attack to damage invaders. It will still damage attacking units in retaliation to melee attacks, though. But there are additional vulnerabilities to cities in Civilization VI: because their districts are now physically located on other tiles, cities may now become severely crippled by invading armies, even if they don't attack the City Center. Invaders now are able to pillage nearby districts, crippling other aspects of the city production, and setting an empire back even without taking its territory. Each time a Pillage action is triggered on a District tile, one Building in this district will be disabled; if there are no functioning buildings left, the District itself is disabled! Disabled buildings and districts have to be Repaired, using a special action in the city's Production queue. Repairing a whole District is quite expensive, while individual buildings take less time to fix. An Encampment District serves as a secondary defense point in a city. Unlike other Districts, it cannot be Pillaged right away - first the enemy needs to wear down its defenses, just like a City Center district. After building Ancient Walls, both the City Centre and the Encampment receive a Ranged Attack, besides also receiving an Outer wall defensive structure. This makes for a formidable defense indeed, which can be upgraded in later Eras even further. Where to Construct Cities Cities should be constructed in locations with plenty of Food and Production and with access to Strategic, Luxury, and Bonus . It is often a good idea to build a city on a or coastal hex, as sources of water are very important to a growing Population. Cities constructed on gain a defensive bonus, making it harder for enemies to capture them. With a selected, ideal city locations will be shown on the map with an icon. Additionally, every Settler will show the Settler Lens (for the first settler, you can activate it with the filter button on the top of the minimap), giving you an idea of where on the map will provide the best source of water for your city, and indicating unavailable tiles. Category:Game element (Civ6)